Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress  —  The president has asked federal agencies to find solutions on their own.  His message to lawmakers: We can do this without you.  —  President Obama is either fed up with Congress or he's testing his own administration's mettle.  Or both.

Perry 44% Obama 41%; President Leads Other GOP Hopefuls  —  For the first time this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry leads President Obama in a national Election 2012 survey.  Other Republican candidates trail the president by single digits.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone …

Pima County Repubs Raffle Glock As Fundraiser; Same Gun Type Used in Tucson Shooting … Talk about a killer gimmick.  —  An Arizona Republican fundraiser is offering as a prize the same type of gun used in the attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

FEMA'S use of term ‘federal family’ for government expands under Obama  —  Posted: 6:17 p.m. Wednesday, Augt.  31, 2011  —  Don't think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.”  —  In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath …

New CNN Poll: 65% give Obama thumbs down on economy  —  Washington (CNN) - Only a third of all Americans approve of how President Barack Obama is handling the economy, according to a new national survey.  —  And with a CNN/ORC International Poll also indicating that more than three-quarters …

Is Obama Playing Rope-a-Dope?  —  Here was the headline on Yahoo from Wednesday night: Obama bows to Boehner on jobs speech.  —  I can tell you what any progressive who has been paying attention thought, “Oh boy, here we go again.”  —  President Obama has now changed the day of his address to Congress to accommodate the Republicans.

Exclusive: Condoleezza Rice fires back at Cheney memoir  —  (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she resented what she viewed as an attack on her integrity by former Vice President Dick Cheney in his just-published memoir.  —  Speaking in an interview with Reuters …

Gibson Guitar Wails on Federal Raid Over Wood  —  Gibson Guitar Corp., a big user of ebony and other scarce woods, for years has allied itself with Greenpeace and other environmental groups to show it was serious about preserving forests.  —  That didn't stop the Nashville-based company …

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says  —  This cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there.  A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes …

Perry has plenty of ideas on Supreme Court, including term limits  —  One solution the governor embraces is to end lifetime tenure — a cornerstone of the Constitution, whose drafters worried far less about activist or senile judges than about meddling tyrants and political pressure.

Howard Dean: Right On Foreign Medical Students  —  Justin Elliott has a kind of exposé piece in Salon about Howard Dean's post-DNC work as a de facto lobbyist and PR man for McKenna Long & Aldridge.  Elliott's interest in the topic stems, I believe, from Dean's advocacy on behalf …

Iceland Exits  —  Iceland is no longer under an IMF program; here's the IMF report (pdf) pronouncing the adjustment program successful.  Indeed.  Iceland still has high unemployment and is a long way from a full recovery; but it's no longer in crisis, it has regained access to international capital markets …

Deputy mayor quit after being busted for domestic violence  —  The blizzard didn't bury him — roughing up his wife did.  —  Former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith — who drew sharp criticism for bungling the Christmas storm that shut down the city — actually resigned in disgrace after his wife …

LIBERALS' VIEW OF DARWIN UNABLE TO EVOLVE  —  Amid the hoots at Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry for saying there were “gaps” in the theory of evolution, the strongest evidence for Darwinism presented by these soi-disant rationalists was a 9-year-old boy quoted in The New York Times.

Another Republican Rebukes Cantor: Chris Christie Demands Hurricane Aid Without Offsetting Cuts  —  Last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) shockingly said that Congress should not approve emergency aid to states battered by Hurricane Irene unless it makes offsetting budget cuts elsewhere first.

Huntsman fires New Hampshire campaign manager  —  Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) has fired his New Hampshire campaign manager, Ethan Eilon, and replaced him with Sarah Crawford Stewart.  —  “She'll be taking over many of the day-to-day responsibilities,” Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller said.

Apple loses another unreleased iPhone (exclusive)  —  Cava22, the San Francisco bar where another unreleased iPhone apparently went missing.  —  In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned.

Huntsman Urges Stripping Deductions From Tax Code  —  Jon M. Huntsman Jr. again showed himself on Wednesday to be an ideological outlier in the Republican presidential field, calling for the tax code to be stripped of all loopholes and deductions.  —  Congressional Republicans …

Chu signals support for proposed oil pipeline  —  Energy Secretary Steven Chu signaled this week that he supports a controversial proposed oil sands pipeline project being considered by the Obama administration.  —  The administration is reaching the tail end of its multi-year review …

Obama and the Burden of Exceptionalism  —  Post-'60s liberals, with the president as their standard bearer, seek to make a virtue of decline.  —  If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: President Obama is destroying the country.  Some say this destructiveness is intended …

Approval of Labor Unions Holds Near Its Low, at 52%  —  Republican, Democratic approval ratings diverge  —  PRINCETON, NJ — In a year marked by contentious negotiations between state governments and public employee unions, a slim majority of Americans, 52%, approve of labor unions.